A YEAR IN!

At this time last year, we had instituted for the first time our annual "No Spending November" activity for the month. We had just started experimenting with our new-found lifestyle ideas: spending less and saving more; driving less and biking more; running around less and prioritizing quality time with each other and our  loved ones; and eating home-cooked food instead of processed and restaurant food. Here we are a year later in another "No Spending November" month and it's exciting to look back at how much we've done over the past year to turn our dreams into reality.

We continue to be committed to this lifestyle and we're finding out what works best for us and our preferences. There is a lot of information out there about "alternative/green/sustainable/etc." lifestyles. This is great, but every person, couple, and family has to figure out what works best for them, because you won't be able to do everything that you come across, that you like, that everyone else is doing, and in the same way that they're doing it.

What is more, most of the blogs and books we've read about this suggest that lifestyle changes, as with anything really, work best when you embark on the journey in a gradual and experimental sort of way. After all, there is a lot of self-inquiry that has to take place in order to change one's habits for the long term, and this takes time, energy, and commitment. Thus, prioritizing too many great ideas at any one time is probably not going to work out in the long run.

And so here we are, a year into our "lifestyle-change" journey and I'm delighted and proud to say that we've done a lot to align our daily life with the four aspirations I listed at the beginning of this blog:

Saving is the key to financial success.

We've achieved a 75% savings rate, primarily because we've been brutally honest with each other about our spending habits. Using the Mint software and Google spreadsheets, we sit down at the end of each month to review, discuss and analyze our spending and savings activities during the past month.  During these discussions we figure out whether there is anything that can be cut out in the future and plan for upcoming expenses that are unusual in nature. This has been a very powerful and revealing exercise for us over the past year.

Our bikes and trailer in front
of our old apartment.

Biking, walking, trains, and metro are our main forms of transportation. Seven months into our experiment, we sold my car (for more details check out this blog post). At that point we had already moved closer to my SO's work, so he could bike to work, and I negotiated with my company to work from home full-time. Then, nine months into our experiment we sold my SO's truck, and are now left with a Volkswagen Golf that we only use on special occasions or when we need to go somewhere that we can't get to easily with our bikes or public transportation. We see ourselves getting rid of this car too, once we decide where we want to settle down.

SO and my nephew playing music
in a Baltimore park.

Prioritizing quality time and experiences over things is our daily mantra. One of the primary reasons we embarked on this lifestyle exploration is that we were fed up with the constant accumulation of stuff and the way consumerism wreaks havoc on people's sense of presence and joy within everyday life. We observed people around us and ourselves running around in cars from one thing to the next, constantly busy and stressed out, and shopping without end. So we decided to STOP and SLOW DOWN.

• Nowadays, we don't plan to do anything after work during the work week that requires us to drive anywhere. We also try to have at least one or two weekends at home in any given month. When we do make plans to go somewhere for the weekend, we try to have only one engagement per day. 
• When it comes to holidays and any sort of gift-giving tradition, we either make a gift ourselves (i.e., arts and crafts, food, etc.) or arrange for an outing/meaningful experience with the person.  We apply these rules to our own relationship, as well, and it's been wonderful each and every day.

We cook 99% of our food and compost almost all of our food waste. Both SO and I care a lot about our health, because we can't imagine living without being physically and mentally active pretty much all the time. In addition to wanting to make sure we ate nutritious and delicious food, we realized over the last year that we needed to get smart about buying food, because organic and locally-sourced can be pretty expensive (ever tried shopping at a farmer's market, Whole Foods or MOM's Organic Market?). The more we researched this the more we realized that our food consumption habits directly impacted our environment. As a result, we've tried to buy as much food as possible in bulk and unpackaged, and then whatever food waste we do have has gone into our compost tumbler (for details check out earlier blog posts on composting, landfill waste, and grocery tracking).

It's really inspiring to look back and realize how much we've been able to accomplish in just one year. I'm excited for all that we'll discover and do over the next year as we continue to experiment with our crazy lifestyle.

Happy Living!

~Modern Akhmatova

CELEBRATE!

"The more you praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

I'd like to dedicate this post to celebrating our life throughout the month of October!

My almost done
magical tree costume. :)

• First, how fun, creative, and exhilarating this Halloween has been for us! We planned and made our costumes from June to the beginning of October. We spent countless weekends sourcing and playing with all sorts of stuff while making our costumes. I was a magical tree and SO was a pyro magician. Basically, I was one giant, glowing, and eclectic tree, while SO set stuff on fire with propane gas. We also planned and choreographed a live performance for the family friends we visit in upstate NY every Halloween. We picked the music, choreographed the show, and practiced a number of times. All  of this anticipation and preparation led to a memorable and fantastic experience with our family friends who also had a surprise for us. They unveiled a ginormous spaceship in their garage, and played all kinds of awesome music while aliens, zombies and wolverines danced at the top of their driveway.

Beautiful fall leaves that I
found on one of the trails.

• Second, how wonderful it was to be camping and hiking in the Shenandoah National Park during autumn! After our long weekend in upstate NY, we worked 3 days and then left for a long weekend in Virginia. SO's parents came along too, since this camping trip has been a family tradition for them for many, many years. We hiked, cooked and hung out at the campsite, shared all sorts of stories, read together side by side in the tent, and had the pleasure to see and hear the one and only Charlie Maddox sing at the Big Meadows Lodge. SO has seen Maddox perform almost every year since he was a baby. Watching him and his parents sing all of Charlie's songs in unison was a beautiful and really fun experience. 

• Third, that I succeed in making creamed spinach taste just like my Mom's! Creamed spinach is one of my all-time favorite foods, but that's really only true if it comes out of my Mom's kitchen. So finally, I decided I was going to try to learn how to make it and it turned out great! It was so satisfying to breathe in the familiar aromas of cooked spinach and garlic, and to realize I could continue the Serbian recipe tradition! 

"Lifetime" compost tumbler

• Forth, we got a big, awesome COMPOST TUMBLER!! This is super exciting for us. In my earlier post on composting a few months back, I described the time-consuming and not-so-green way we were going about composting our kitchen scraps at the time. For a while my SO and I have been discussing getting a composter of our own. So we did some research about what works best for apartment dwellers, read customer reviews on Amazon about different compost bins and tumblers, and decided we were going to get one by November 1st. Between last month and a week ago, I had been tracking local ads on craigslist. Finally one showed up that looked good and voila, it's now sitting on our balcony. Loving it!

• And lastly, toasting to the 20 year anniversary of the California Desert Protection Act! The Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, and the Mojave National Preserve were established in the California desert as a result of this Act that was signed on October 31, 1994.

And now I'd like turn to the whole idea of celebrating holidays and traditions, and why my SO and I decided to make up our own.  

So much of what we celebrate is prescribed by the society and culture we happen to live in. Most people follow along because they get a day off work, believe in (materialist) reciprocity, and/or because everyone else is doing it. Having realized all this, and primarily because we've come to despise the "biggest sham holiday of them all" - Xmas, my SO and I wanted to start celebrating things that we actually felt joyous about and that made a difference in our lives. 

Source

Along the way we also realized that in order to keep peace with the family we needed to make the best of all the consumerism-driven events such as Xmas and birthdays. That said, we've adapted by making homemade foods and crafts for Xmas gifts, and treating our friends and family with quality experiences. 

While we can't wait for the day when we no longer have to deal with the religious and retail tyranny of Xmas, we will go along to keep family peace by treating it like a family breakfast that we bring homemade treats to for our loved ones. 

On the other hand, we're big fans of Thanksgiving, which will get its own post at the end of this month. As far as we're concerned, and everyone we've every talked to about this, Thanksgiving is the best "official" holiday ever. 

Happy Celebrating!

~Modern Akhmatova